Scientific name: Emberiza rustica Pallas, 1776
Bird group: Buntings
Field characters. 15 cm. Male with black cap and face, broad white supercilium, throat and underparts and chestnut neck, breastband and flank streaks. Female is brownish-streaked where male is black and has less pronounced head pattern; may be confused with Little Bunting and Reed Bunting but has whitish crown-stripe (chestnut in Little and absent in Reed Bunting), rusty nape (greyish in Little and Reed Bunting), different face pattern with conspicuous white supercilium and pale rear ear-covert spot (latter also in Little Bunting but malar and moustachial stripes in this species do not reach bill) and white breast with large chestnut streaks on flanks (streaks narrower and brown in Reed and thin and black in Little Bunting). Both sexes have brown upperparts with black stripes and black-and-white median coverts. When perched shows peaked crown, due to raised crown-feathers. Rarely in flocks; more often in dense woods than other buntings.
Voice. Call 'tick' and 'tsiek'. Song rather short and simple, somewhat resembling Dunnock.
Distribution. Scarce summer visitor in northern part of region, increasingly common to the east.
Habitat. Open coniferous and deciduous woods, often near marshes.
Food. In summer insects, in winter mainly seeds. Feeds both in trees and on the ground.